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TOTALITARIANISM
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“DEMOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP”
“A MAN OF THE PEOPLE”
ONE PARTY STATE
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TECHNOLOGY USED FOR CONTROL
WEAPONS OF REPRESSION,
COMMUNICATIONS
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CONTROL OF EDUCATION AND MEDIA
TOTALITARIANISM
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NO OPPOSITION – “ENEMIES OF THE
STATE”
 POPULAR, MASS ORGANIZATIONS
 IDENTITY
POLITICS
CONSCIOUSNESS
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20TH CENTURY EXAMPLES:
COMMUNISM
FASCISM
VICTIM
The Internationale
Stand up. All victims of oppression
For the tyrants fear your might.
Don ‘t cling so hard to your possessions
For you have nothing, if you have no
rights.
Let racist ignorance be ended
For respect makes the empires fall.
Freedom is merely privilege extended
Unless enjoyed by one and all.
Chorus
So come brothers and sisters
For the struggle carries on.
The Internationale
Unites the world in song.
So comrades come rally
For this is the time and place.
The international ideal
Unites the human race.
Let no one build walls to divide us
Walls of hatred nor walls of stone.
Come greet the dawn and stand beside
us
We’ll live together or we’ll die alone.
In our world poisoned by exploitation
Those who have taken, now they must
give.
And end the vanity of nations
We’ve but one Earth on which to live.
And so begins the final drama
In the streets and in the fields.
We stand unbowed before their armor
We defy their guns and shields.
When we fight, provoked by their
aggression
Let us be inspired by life and love.
For though they offer us concessions.
Change will not come from above.
Billy Bragg
COMMUNISM
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STATE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE
INDIVIDUAL
INSPIRED BY MARX, DEFINED BY
LENIN
HISTORICALLY INEVITABLE
“DICTATORSHIP OF THE
PROLETARIAT”
The appeal of communism: RGH, p. 279
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“I was ripe to be converted. . .the new star of
Bethlehem had risen in the East.”
COMMUNISM
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ROLE/POWER OF THE STATE:
TO CRUSH THE CAPITALISTS
 TO EDUCATE THE WORKERS
 TO COMMAND THE ECONOMY
 TO “WITHER AWAY”
 A “CLASSLESS
SOCIETY”- “FROM
EACH, ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY, TO
EACH, ACCORDING TO HIS NEEDS.”
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ANTI-FASCIST
ANTI-CAPITALIST
RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS
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TWO REVOLUTIONS
IN 1917
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MARCH -MODERATE
NOVEMBER-RADICAL
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LED BY LENIN WHO
SEIZES POWER
BOLSHEVIK PARTY
STRONG ORGANIZATION
DIVIDED OPPOSITION
“PEACE, LAND, BREAD”
CIVIL WAR, 1919-1922
LENIN DIES, 1924
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STALIN 1925-1953
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“SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY”
FIVE-YEAR PLANS OF RAPID
INDUSTRIALISM
COLLECTIVIZATION OF
AGRICULTURE
“CULT OF THE PERSONALITY”
GULAGS – PURGES OF ALL
OPPOSITION
SECRET POLICE
FASCISM
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MUSSOLINI OF ITALY (RGH, p. 281)
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“This will be the century of authority. . .the century
of the state”
Definition of Fascism:
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An intensely nationalistic, (racialist), militarist
and imperialist dictatorship based on charismatic
leadership based on absolute obedience,
coercion, repression of all opposition, and a
strict subordination of the individual to the state.
Explaining Hitler
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Victim – Jew, abused
Loser – failed artist,
WWI
Insane, Madman
Diseased
Psychopath
“the Hitler within”
Master of irrational
psychological forces
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The sexual deviant
Evil incarnate
Political Criminal
Counterfeiter (Phony)
Opportunist
Eliminationist AntiSemite
Political genius
How does Hitler come to power?
“He came in on catpaws.”
NAZI VOTE IN ELECTIONS
May 1928
Sept. 1930
July 1932
Nov. 1932
3%
18%
37%
33%
(lost 2 million voters)
Mar. 1933
43%
(no effective opposition)
So, the Nazis never won a
majority in any national election
The Catholic Center party and the
Social Democrats kept their voters throughout.
40% of those who joined the party between 1925 and 1933eventually left.
Hitler and the Jews
Then I came to Vienna. . .
Once, as I was strolling through the Inner City, I suddenly
encountered an apparition in a black caftan and black hair
locks. Is this a Jew? Was my first thought.
For, to be sure, they had not loked like that in Linz. I
observed the man furtively and cautiously, but the longer I
stared at this foreign face, scrutinizing feature for feature,
the more my first questions assumed a new form:
Is this a German?
As always, in such cases, I now began to try to relieve my
doubts by books. For a few hellers I bought the first antiSemitic pamplets of my life. . .
I could no longer very well doubt that the objects of my
study were not Germans of a special religion, but a people
in themselves.”
From Mein Kampf
The Seven Elements of the Hitler
Myth
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the embodiment of
law and order
represents the national
interest
the architect of the
German “miracle”
a moderate against
extremists
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commitment against
the “enemies of the
people”
the statesman, the man
of peace
the military genius
How Does Hitler Come to Power?
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Depression
Technicalities
“He came in on catpaws”
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Weimar Republic weak
Personal Traits-charisma,
“a messiah”
“November Crime”-Ger.
loss in WWI
Versailles
Vision of a new Germany
Communists – Reichstag
fire
 The “Big Lie”Propaganda
“if only the Fuhrer knew
about that”
 Foreign Recognition and
Appeasement
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“The George Washington of
Germany”
Lloyd George of Br.
Genius
Dictionary Definition – “exceptional intellectual and creative
power, or one who possesses such power.”
Which of the following constitutes genius?
1. holding absolute power.
2. having the power of life or death over millions.
3. purging the country of those considered inferior, either
physically, mentally, racially, or politically.
4. betraying those that supported you on your way to the top.
5. blaming your problems on others.
6. being a charismatic speaker.
7. understanding the psyche of the people.
8. losing World War II.
9. leaving a legacy of shame for the German people.
10. pursing a single-minded ideology of hatred and violence.
I DIDN’T SPEAK UP
“IN GERMANY, THE NAZIS FIRST CAME FOR THE
COMMUNISTS, AND I DIDN’T SPEAK UP BECAUSE I WASN’T
A COMMUNIST. THEN THEY CAME FOR THE JEWS, BUT I
DIDN’T SPEAK UP BECAUSE I WASN’T A JEW. THEN THEY
CAME FOR THE TRADE UNIONISTS, AND I DIDN’T SPEAK
UP BECAUSE I WASN’T A TRADE UNIONIST. THEN THEY
CAME FOR THE CATHOLICS, BUT I DIDN‘T SPEAK UP
BECAUSE I WAS A PROTESTANT. THEN THEY CAME FOR
ME, AND BY THAT TIME, THERE WAS NO ONE LEFT TO
SPEAK FOR ME.”
REV. MARTIN NIEMOELLER, GERMAN LUTHERAN
PASTOR, ARRESTED BY THE GESTAPO AND SENT TO
DACHAU IN 1938, FREED IN 1945
The Interwar Period 1919-1939
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Post-WWI Problems:
League of Nations—collective security
 Reparations and war debts
 Spread of dictatorship
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The Illusion of Security
Disarmament
 Peace agreements (Locarno; Kellogg-Briand)
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The Depression—the world goes crazy
Global Interdependence
Germany
Reparations
Loans, Investment
Trade
France
Britain
Japan
War Debts
United States
International Aggression
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Japan—war in China, 1931-37+
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Italy—Ethiopia, 1935-37
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Spanish Civil War, 1936-39: Rome-Berlin Axis
Germany under Hitler
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Two policies: nationalism, revise Versailles
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Rearmament
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Remilitarization of the Rhineland, 1936
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Hossbach minutes, 1937: lebensraum, war
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Anschluss with Austria, 1938
Appeasement policy—definition
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Rationale:
a.
 b.
 c.
 d.
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Assessment
The Munich Pact, 1938
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Surrender of the Sudetenland
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“Peace in our time”—Chamberlain
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Germany seizes rest of Czech., March 1939
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Pressure on Poland and the end of
appeasement
The View from Russia
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Stalin’s suspicions
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The Nazi-Soviet Pact, August 1939